Why I Loved Reading ‘Children of Time’
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s science fiction epic succeeds because of how he deploys narrative elements
Warning: some mild spoilers will follow in this brief review, but I’ll leave the main plot points untouched.
I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time a day or two ago and I find myself continuing to think about the themes, characters, and narrative arc contained in its pages. I found this novel a little difficult to fully sink into, but it picked up pace as it progressed, especially near the end.
By the time I reached the last page, I was deeply impressed by how well Tchaikovsky built his narrative and how ambitious the scope of the plot is. All in all, I highly recommend this book and am interested to read its sequel.
Themes and Ideas
Children of Time takes place over thousands and thousands of years, tracking both a group of humans who have survived a fallen earth — traveling through space in an ark ship called the Gilgamesh — and sentient spiders who have evolved into a full civilization. Tchaikovsky tracks the spiders across countless generations as their species grows and matures, but writes about the same group of humans from beginning to end by using hibernation as a plot device to follow the same characters across millennia. It’s an effective way to keep the perspective grounded in the same characters.
Throughout the course of the novel, the spiders are trying to create the best civilization they can while the humans are searching for a new home. Since the planet that the arachnid civilization lives on is one of the few that is both habitable and within range of the Gilgamesh, the two groups are set on a collision course with each other that foreshadows violent conflict.
Tchaikovsky uses most of the novel to set the stage for war between spiders and humans, making it clear that these two groups will clash. Without spoiling too much, it’s safe to say that the way he concludes this story is nothing short of masterful. I found it exceptionally satisfying.
What I liked
Early on, I found myself struggling to enjoy the book. Tchaikovsky’s prose is well-written, but it felt a little stiff and impersonal in the first few chapters. However, once I got past this initial reaction, I was drawn in by the ambition of his narrative arc and how he writes about the passage of time.
The treatment of time as a narrative element is, ultimately, what I love the most about this book. Other writers, like Cixin Liu in his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, have also written about time in interesting ways, and it’s interesting to see how Tchaikovsky uses it to track one group of humans and an entire civilization of spiders. Since so many years pass between the beginning of the book and its final pages, this aspect of the writing adds narrative and emotional weight to the conclusion of the book.
It’s worth pointing out that the vast majority of this book is devoted to setting the table for a conflict that’s clearly telegraphed. Since I knew there was a sequel planned (which is actually already out, called Children of Ruin), I was a little worried that the narrative payoff wouldn’t come in the final pages. However, I was wrong to be afraid. Tchaikovsky both ends this book effectively and leaves the door open for an interesting sequel.
I’m new to Tchaikovsky’s work, but I’m excited to read more of his books in the future. I’ll check out Children of Ruin as soon as I can find it at my local library.
The views expressed are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other person or organization.
